Tag: food

First and foremost: Happy 4th of July! I hope all of your are having a great time with family, friends and whoever else celebrating today.

[Insert me asking Google how to start your first, well, technically second post after an announced week of absence. <- okay, kidding here but maybe I should have consulted that all-knowing search machine to come up with a better intro?].

If you didn’t see yesterday’s post: hello again! No, I did not decide to stop blogging out of nowhere. The only simple – yet cringe-inducing for its overuse – way to sum up the reason is: life happened. I missed blogging yet at the same time know I need[ed] a break. My issues with commenting still haven’t been resolved so if I didn’t comment on your posts: Askimet. Sigh.

Today’s post is going to be shorter than my usual wordy Weeks in Review as my sister and sweet little nephew P. are here until tomorrow afternoon only so I want to spend some more time with them while I get the chance. The week away from blogging and the past two weeks in general brought about a few realizations hence adding a few notes to myself today.

Onto some of what happened in my life during the past seven days via Meg’s wonderful Week in Review. I …

Worked the usual five days each week. Especially the past one was … hard. Uncomfortable. Yet providing learning experience. Still not one I want to see repeated.

On the upside: we now have a new boss. Not replacing the ‘old’ one but additionally. They fused their businesses starting July 1st. You can’t call it a bad start if little chocolate gifts with handpicked flowers are involved, no?

Second upside of work: bonding with colleagues is getting better by the week. Sometimes going through above-mentioned hard times helps with that. As does saying thank you. A lot. I might overdo it for some but it’s a word not used often enough in my opinion.

Note to self: use it more often towards certain other people, too. Improvement is always possible.

Cleaned my apartment. Including scrubbing some very sticky spots on the floor by hand. Worth overcoming the initial yuck factor for the ‘oh so clean’ marveling afterwards. Note to self: clean those trouble spots more regularly. Sigh.

Actually went to bed earlier than usual. Probably – no, definitely – due to not blogging. Not exactly what I liketo admit to myself. Read: being a night owl does have its downsides. Note to self: work on stepping away from screens earlier before bedtime. Seriously.

Got to spend time with litte P. twice. Once when visiting my sister to celebrate her birthday belatedly and the other time now they’re visiting us until Monday.

Finally visited the restaurant I mentioned before as a family, too. The one I translated the menu for if you remember it – I don’t blame you if you don’t because it’s been months ago but they didn’t get it up until recently. As also mentioned back then I’m not a fan of burgers. Don’t hate me, okay? That didn’t keep me from enjoying a truly wonderful time with my parents, grandparents, sister + her family [husband and little P.] and my brother plus his girlfriend. Family > food any day. No nicer pictures as I forgot to edit them – good restaurant, not so stellar light for photography – so all you’ll get is one of my salad. Flash … #bloggerfail More interesting than this mixed salad with seasonal vegetables and candied walnuts were the fries, though. Long time fry craving: finally satisfied.

Notes to self:Family dinners like this need to happen more often and: stepping out of my food comfort zone needs to be a more regular thing, too. Especially if it involves fries served family-style.

Finally took a trip to the citizen centre to get a paper I needed. Waiting an hour – okay, truth: I saw the queue and decided to pass the time running errands; win-win. Especially as I ended up having a nice albeit too short conversation with the employee handling my consult as she’s a former classmate of mine.

Watched the two winning matches of the German soccer team in the European Championship. Or semi-watched as I get bored actually sitting down and watching whole games alone plus don’t own a TV and the livestream kept crashing. Anyway, not bad. Really not bad. I’m still not interested in soccer but figure it’s my duty to show some interest ;). Or maybe I do enjoy it just that bit …

Note to self: Even annoying situations can lead to positives. And: procrastination is bad.

Happiness-inducing today: Family time and actually getting a lot done in good time on a Sunday. Usually a hectic and less relaxed day for me.

Can we talk about honesty in blogging for a moment? I’m very much for that though also find it to be something that needs constant re-evaluation and depends largely on the topic and potentially people involved. Today I admittedly didn’t even feel like writing. It was one of those low days where you just want to walk out of your life like bye, Felicia. See you again. ..never. Okay, yes, that does sound a tad dramatic. Let’s say it’s that part of the movie where the protagonist is smack dab in the middle of the hard times with the saviour or solution yet to be seen. Bradley Cooper, can you please come and act your silver linings part in my life? All that to say that life currently doesn’t feel like sunshine and rainbows for me.
However, no matter how hard life gets I refuse to get all down. It’s all about the attitude. And mine is: catch the silver linings. Even if Bradley doesn’t show up. So no, I haven’t spent every waking minute hating on life. There’s sunshine, there are precious happy moments. I just wanted to get this off my chest to show that hey, nobody’s life is perfect and always fun or easy-going despite it appearing like that in the blog world at times. It’s about the full disclosure here. Moving on because you didn’t come here to hear me ramble and I’d rather switch to the good things again, too. Also, it’s my sister’s birthday meaning I’ll see her and my sweet nephew again this week – definitely somethignt o look forward to! Here’s to another Week in Review with Meg – thanks as always for hosting!

Some of my happenings and accomplishments from the past week:

Worked five days again. No major successes, no sinking ships, either. Only my computer at work being a pain in the ass. Thank you for crashing multiple times in the same day. That really helped my work flow. Not.

Speaking of computer problems: those at home continued. Slow, crashes, weird happenings all around. Thanks to that I also only got two posts up.

Additionally, I haven’t been able to comment on most blogs. No, I’m not kidding and you might have already read it in yesterday’s post: Going about my blog reading as usual I failed at getting my comments through on any but maybe a handful of blogs. For once it’s not my laptop’s fault as neither commenting from it nor my phone or computer at work – in a break, mind you – led to succeess. If any of you have an idea of what the problem could be: please let me know! Until then please don’t be surprised if I don’t join in on the conversation under your posts. Not amused.

Did Blogilates workouts every other day but skipped when I felt really thrown off or physically wasn’t having it. It took fighting my inner mean girl but that in itself is a mental workout. Win-win.

[Since I realized the lack of pictures until here: I’m currently in the process of preparing yet anpther batch of these PB & Jelly Bars for a colleague.]

Cleaned my apartment – on Friday already. I tend to put this off until Saturdays but I’d rather have it crossed off my list earlier.

Cleaned the fridge. No pictures and we won’t get into details because. .. yes. It had been a [too] long time. We’re not friends anymore if you’re going off to search for the last time I listed this in my Week in Review ;). Ooops. Learn from my mistakes and clean your fridge regularly.

Edited for my sister’s thesis again. It was fun to be in my element there again but: as long as I live and have a chance to interfere “to google” is not going to become a word. Please tell me you don’t use it or you’re hurting my little writer’s heart.

Received a literally sweet package from a just as sweet Insta-Friend. Thank you once again, Soph. This definitely was a silver sugar lining in my week. Also to all Americans: go and get this Lindt bar! It’s not available in Germany and you’re missing out. Just saying. Especially good with peanut butter. Not that you didn’t see this one coming from me, no?

Saving the best for last: I went on another long and spontaneous walk with my dad. Full disclosure once more: this truly made my day and gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling as well as a very good conversation about t. Yet it’s not to say everything’s peachy between us. I’ve lived with him long enough to know that this could be shaken up the very next minute. But that’s what we have memories for: to keep the precious moments shared. This walk as well as another hug and high five will be stored in my mind for the worse times. Okay, I’ll stop the stop the sappy story time here but really valued this.

Reading over my list I realize this doesn’t sound like a bad week. It’s because – full disclose or not – I still didn’t share everything. The not-so-good moments are left out here as I need to work out these things for myself and we’re all keeping bits here and there to ourselves, no?

On this note: let’s keep up the good attitude for our fresh start into a new week! Happy Monday!

Today’s Week in Review is going to be short – and hopefully sweet – which I hope you’ll excuse as I’m quickly writing this post before enjoying the last few hours of her stay with my sister and the baby. They’ve been staying with us since Thursday night and it’s been a much appreciated break from the usual sounds and scents of life – hence the title and theme you’ll see in a minute. Thank you once again to Meg whose daily life is very baby-centered these days, too.I can’t deny I’m already looking forward to the latest pictures of Ave so let’s get this started!

Only a few snippets of what I did during the past week: I …

Worked three days only thanks to a public holiday [Himmelfahrt]. Three packed days they were.

Sounds: hectic voices, occasionally a little louder than would feel necessary.
Scents: sterile. Birch trees when the colleague I’m sharing an office with opened the windows. Technically a nice scent … If it didn’t send me into insane poll allergy sneeze attacks. Spring, what are you doing to me?!

Published three blog posts one of which was a recipe for a delicious snack that’s already a new family favourite.
Sounds: my current good mood Spotify playlist. I highly recommend a slice of this* for your ears if Monday has you feeling like …

*yes, I’m aware of the actual meaning of this title …

Scents: freshly baked Fruit and Nut Quinoa Clusters. In fact, I have a batch in the oven as I’m typing this. Not to tooth my own horn but with even my dad’s approval I’d say it’s good good food.

Did the usual household tasks: cleaning. Emptying and loading the dishwasher every day. My parents’, too. Some laundry.

Spent Thursday out and about with my mum, sister and my current crush [proud aunt moments: a million]. We visited a few exhibitions by local artists and designers.

Smells: fresh flowers. Baked vegetables and rice. Baby. No, really, this is a specific scent and unfortunately very hard to describe – any help, Meg? Scented candle makers should honestly consider adding “baby” into their portfolios 😉 – it’s a happy-making scent and one I couldn’t get enough of this past week.

Visited a new only temporarily opened restaurant on said trip. While I didn’t order anything – they only serve burgers [you know it] and I wasn’t hungry, either – I snagged some of my sister’s fries and homemade ketchup that came with the Halloumi burger she ordered. Not bad. So I think my issue with condiments might be mostly limited to the storebought kinds.

Went on many walks, including a short one with my dad. Things still aren’t better but we actually met by accident when I’d gone on a morning walk on Sunday and he’d headed out on a walk with the baby, too. It was really nice since a baby to look at and talk to is a surefire way to prevent arguments or even harsh words.

Is it bad to look forward to the upcoming weekend on Monday already? Because I very much do after this past week brought on some April showers in the form of not so pleasant happenings. On Thursday my mum and I will pick up my sister and make our way to my grandparents’ to celebrate my grandpa’s birthday. I’m not anticipating the six hour car drive involved but it will be worth it. And then my sister – and the little one, obviously 🙂 – will be staying with us until Sunday. A three-day-only work week isn’t the worst, either. Public holidays for the win! For now, let’s get the week started with a bang in the form of another Week in Review. Thanks to Meg for keeping up with the shenanigans stll.

Onto some of what happened in my life during the past seven days. I …

Worked five days again. It felt mostly good aside from one day that was hard to endure – and not because I had to wear pants.

Drove my dad around again. No more words on our relationship here as it feels like all the “progress” we made was nixed leaving us back at square zero. A very anxiety-provoking square zero that’s occupying my mind a lot.

Survived a dentist’s appointment. More lined up in the future.

Adulted. Meaning I paid a few bills, sighing at the disproportionate flow of income vs. expenses or in other words: why does money take long to earn but is spent in a matter of minutes?

Cooked every day. I also meal-prepped but like I said don’t feel daring enough to prepare larger amounts of certain dishes in advance. Like my go-to breakfast. Keeping it real here and showing it in its unedited or beautified nature.

Decided to keep those shoes – an obvously failed to take a picture to insert here in time. Soon, soon.

Navigated my sister through another healthy baking project. It all started Friday afternoon with a text asking if I had “a healthy cookie recipe”. Bloggers will know there’s so much wrong with this question: 1. How would any healthy living blogger -not- know one? 2. Actually: one? Impossible to recommend anything because you know too many. Specify, please. Crispy and chocolatey were the requirements so after a quick consult of my blog reader I sent her this link. Followed by advice on ingredient subs and sources. Side note: It’s so nice to give back to my big sister even if just in small ways as I could always count on her when I was younger.

Met this little furry, no, thorny friend. No denial of the fact I spent a good while watching him and squealing like a little child afterwards. Can I please keep it?!

I’m sorry for this being a shorter, maybe not quite as upbeat post but there’s a lot of rumbling going on in my brain right now. I still can’t wait to hear about what you’ve been up to. No matter the struggles in daily life: the blog world is always there to cheer up and support each other and for that I’m very grateful. Thank you and have a great start into the new week and month!

Oh. April. This has to be a bad joke. Just to recap this for you: Sunday saw us going from snow and hail to brightest sunshine. Rain. Sunshine. Hail. Currently: meh.

Now onto some real talk. Real talk as in: admitting some possibly ridiculous-sounding thoughts that have been on my mind lately. These Weeks in Review are fun to write and even more to read on others’ blogs. I guess all bloggers are at least a smidgen nosey and find it interesting to get an idea of what’s going on in others’ lives. However, I’ve been wondering if my reviews sound vain. Self-centered.* Braggish? Definitely not my intention. Yes, I’m blogging for myself but in the end my favourite part of blogging is getting in touch with and learning more about you. I’m not sure why and when I started to worry or doubt this but maybe you feel like chiming in on your perception and how you deal with those thoughts if you’ve had them before, too.

Moving on and getting started on recapping my past week. As the title already hinted you at I’ve been working . though it sounds oxymoronic here – on relaxing. Relaxing mentally about what I didn’t get done, what I ate and what I spent money on.It’s a slow progress but baby steps are still steps. Before I get into this more: a big thanks to Meg for hosting and thereby gifting us some of her – with a baby – rare time. I’ve seen it with my sister: having a baby truly is a full-time job.

*okay, I guess everybody’s are somehow self-centered because that’s what they’re about …

Onto some of the things I did in the past week. I …

Worked the usual five days. It was another busy week and I’m not expecting it to slow own any time soon but busy is bettr than

Ordered a new book for myself – after pondering for weeks. It’s another one of those cases where I can’t justify spending money on myself. Food? Sure. Food for my brain or to pamper myself? Forget about it. It’d better be a really good book. Ironically, its title describes my mind’s wanderings mentioned in my intro …

Cleaned out my fruit and vegetable stash. It’s huge given I’m the only one eating it but can you really blame me? Produce is -so- good.

Made a stupid mistake and sent an uncomfortable e-mail to hopefully correct it.

Likely the funniest/most embarrassing “accomplishment” /happeningin here. My dad cycles to work every day and asks me to pick up and return a box of files he wants to work on at home – I wasn’t kidding when I called him a workaholic – a few times a week. Not a big deal. However, he needed it back an hour earlier than usual Wednesday morning. Meaning an even earlier get-up for me. I’m NOT a morning person at all. So that was not going to happen. Solution? Call me crazy but choosing between two uncomfortable options I went with the better one: driving to his office at shortly before midnight when he’d mostly finished working. I can’t deny it was a scary experience because hello, dark night in the countryside and walking through a semi-dark empty office. What won’t I do for a slightly longer sleep …?! Thanks for nothing to the radio station playing this song on my drive there. Wolf howls were the perfect background music for a scaredy cat like me. Not.

Meal prepped. A little better than in the past week – only one lunch to prepare spontaneously. My current go-to dish to prepare – aside from speltberries – is one I used to make all the time way back: sauteed vegetables in a creamy “cheesy” pumpkin sauce. It’s simple, quick to prepare and has a high likeliness to be what I’ll be craving almost every day. Winner!

Remembered to take my iron supplement every morning ever since mentioning it on the blog for the first time. It’s funny because when I first told you about it here it had only been a week of not forgetting it. Now? I haven’t skipped a day since. Yes to blogging accountability!

For those of you not struggling with food it will sound ridiculous but for me it’s huge: I didn’t let stress or temptation make me skip any meals and dealt well/okay with a few nights of non-stop hunger.

Semi-spontaneously went shopping on Saturday. More treating myself, guilt is making me overthink my hugest spending so no picture of it – or better yet: shoes – yet. Maybe next week if I can convince myself to keep them. And since I wasin the same city already I also: a) had a delicious lunch at Dean & David’s:

… and …

Saw my nephew – and sister plus her husband – again. Oh goodness, he’s growing so fast! We had a good chat though I’m not entirely sure I understood what he wantedto tell me ;). It’s also taking more effort to get him to laugh than just a few weeks ago. Already too cool for simple oooh- and aaah-ing.

Speaking of my sister: I got to proofread another exposé for her. Can’t wait for more to come. I’m glad to know other people can relate to my excitement about this.

I also telephone.coached my sister through baking a batch of vegan cookies because she obviously had to wing a recipe using homgeround flour, subbing agave for sugar and not knowing which egg replacer to use with “nothing” at hand (Id’ spied chia seeds n her kitchen the day before so went with that). Fingers crossed they came out well!

… and that was it again from me. Over to you!

Tell me three [or more] achievements from your past week!

Happiness-inducing today: Getting a lot one for sleeping in far too long today.

What a title … the meaning? I’ve been finding myself in an odd mix of feelings lately: craving change so badly. Yet also appreciating what I have right now [job – wise, safety]. Yes, I would really like to move, find a job that actually excites me and live closer to friends/have better chances to make new ones again. But that’s not as easy as snapping my fingers or clicking my heels twice. Rather than pity myself and cry a river about the circumstances I’m trying to accept them for what they are and see the silver linings. Once again hrough a new Week in Review joining Meg, who leads by example by never losing sight of the bright side of things. Without further ado: here’s some of what I did this past week.

Made the best of Monday as another day off from work – yay for long weekends! – by spending time with my family and also meeting a friend living further away. While too short a meet-up it was great to catch up nonetheless.

Life’s lime: no internet access at all on Saturday [hence my late night mention in yesterday’s post]. While definitely bummed I took the opportunity to prepare a new batch of coconut butter and test another recipe …

Success, I’d say. So in case life hands you oranges the next few days you might want to save them for these delicious bars coming your way on Thursday.

Worked four days. While a little exhausting I’m not complaining because this meant more time well spent and less for procrastination at home.

Received several hours of training on Easter Sunday which are now paying off. Working for a relative meant my boss asked me to come in on the holiday weekend so he could introduce me to a few more tasks. More important tasks which means I haven’t felt bored at work at all the past week so this lime life handed me resulted in a good outcome.

Publshed three blog posts. One of which I was hesitant to share but I loved* really enjoyed reading all of your opinions on the topic. That’s truly one of the best things about blogging.

Became my dad’s designated driver. No, he wasn’t caught drunk driving ;). Poor guy hurt his arm and isn’t supposed to drive [or really use his arm much , i.e. no heavy lifting etc.] for a few months. Now if only he’d stop giving me advice on how to drive … [<- does anybody else’s dad/spouse/boyfriend do that even when you’ve been driving for years already, too?]. Still, it’s an interesting situation of him depending on me rather than the other way around as it used to be for so many years during my childhood.

Very spontaneously went to an exhibition in a museum locates in an old tower with my dad. He asked me to join him completely out of the blue on Saturday and despite not feeling it I said yes. It turned out the exhibition was tiny but we – mind my acrophobia! – climbed up to the highest point of the tower and had a spectacular view of our town. Well worth the entrance fees and climbing up those steep stairs. This wasn’t a lime but yet another small step on building a better relationship with my dad. Progress not perfection.

Also very spontaneously called one of my cousins. We don’t get to see each other nearly enough and talked for what felt like forever – deciding we should turn this into a regular thing.

Remembered to take my iron supplement every morning. I’ve been taking it for several months already as my levels are too low and diet alone wouldn’t have amped them up quickly enough. Yet I dislike any kind of medication and occasionally “forget” [sometimes genuinely forgetting, sometimes not feeling it] to take it. Especially since you have to take it pre-breakfast and that doesn’t sit well with me. Handling this lime by at least insisting on a vegetarian pill [many are not]. And yes, I know: it’s pink but this was not by choice – not like I was complaining, though! Hi, Barbie world.

Did the usual household tasks like cleaning dishes by hand, loading and unloading the dishwasher as well as cooking every day. Yes, food pictures have been lacking on here but I promise I still eat.

… and because it’s late once again that’s a wrap for now. I hope you’re having a great start into the new week!